oyuki

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Typhoon in Combat

On April 12, 2011 a milestone in the Eurofighter Typhoon's saga was reached. Over Misurata Libya, the plane saw its first combat - video found at the link. A Typhoon flying in formation with a Tornado GR.4 received notice that government tanks were on the move south of Misurata. Two tanks were destroyed when the Typhoon dropped Enhanced Paveway II smartbombs.

What is interesting is the last paragraph. Currently the RAF has 60 Typhoons and it looks like they maybe flying as many as 230 of the planes in the future. Assuming the UK and MoD has the budget.

2 comments:

Lemme see, RAF with 60 operational Typhoons and soon to have as many as 230. Small island nation, once a great power, limited force projection requirements...USAF, limited total buy of 187 Raptors, still not all delivered, rapidly downsizing F-35 buy, 2.5+ ongoing wars in progress globally and rising threats from reconstituted Russia and rapidly modernizing China that is simultaneously waging economic war against us...how does that work out long term...

Don't forget Leon Panetta is about to be slotted as the new Secretary of Defense. He was such a smash at the CIA helping oust Hosni Mubarek...

It's getting very ugly. 187 Raptors does not make sense nor a scaling back of the F-35, unless we want to keep producing F-16s and F-18s. I really hope the Boeing vs NLRB tussel about the 787 does not spill over into the tanker contract. But I am not holding my breath on that.